Vectorscope or equivalent

[kozikowski]

It shows phase correlation.

OIC. So if the jellyfish is a ball of yarn (to cross a metaphor) this would cut through the mess and tell you that a majority of the work is probably OK. Koz

[steve]

OIC. So if the jellyfish is a ball of yarn (to cross a metaphor) this would cut through the mess and tell you that a majority of the work is probably OK.

Yes. It's easier to see at a quick glance what the phase relationship is rather than having to interpret is fluffy ball.

[Gale Andrews]

I've added Koz's vote for Vectorscope to Wiki FR's so this thread can be archived when Peter is ready.


Gale

[unfa]

I've read that a vectorscope is a different thing than a jellyfish scope.
But what is the "jellyfish" of meterbridge program seems to be really a vectorscope with a phase corelation meter, not a jellyfish.
Am I right?
How does that relate to a goniometer?

[bputney]

A useful thing would be for Audacity to have a [-1...0...+1] kind of display always in the meter group. Then a pop-up vectorscope (goniometer) display if the user wants a better view of things. The meter is enough to warn the user that something is going badly wrong it it's always pinned to -1 and never goes positive. The vectorscope really needs to be there to actually see what's going on.

This functionality needs to be native to Audacity. Adding some routing software and a 3rd party vectorscope app adds such a high level of complexity that it won't be used by just the people who are most likely to need to use it.

We use Audacity at our all volunteer community radio station to edit programs. We have Audition but universally Audacity is the chosen tool of the volunteers who produce content for the station. These folks are presenters of information and not really audio engineers or computer scientists. Bad things happen at a radio station when people don't know the phase of the channels. I was called to the station because the "The audio is low and scratchy". We got dozens of calls from listeners who thought the station was broken. Turns out we were airing a program that had, essentially a mono program recorded in stereo, with one channel inverted. I could see it on a vectorscope but to explain and demonstrate that in the editing suite was fairly hard to do. I demonstrated how it could be determined but i doubt that anyone watching me set up the demonstration could reproduce it. It's only a matter of time until it happens again. Now they know what it sounds like but it only shows up on the air when the L+R mono main signal is received on a mono receiver or in poor signal areas when the receiver is automatically blending to mono.

Where do I go to beg for this feature in the next release?!

Bill Putney - Chief Engineer KPTZ (Radio Port Townsend, WA)

[steve]

Adding some routing software and a 3rd party vectorscope app adds such a high level of complexity that it won't be used by just the people who are most likely to need to use it.

I agree that is too complex for most users, but my video was intended purely as a demonstration to clarify what we were talking about and encourage discussion about what people actually want (so thanks for the comment )

Turns out we were airing a program that had, essentially a mono program recorded in stereo, with one channel inverted. I could see it on a vectorscope but to explain and demonstrate that in the editing suite was fairly hard to do. I demonstrated how it could be determined but i doubt that anyone watching me set up the demonstration could reproduce it. It's only a matter of time until it happens again.

This simple plug-in would reveal the problem (with appropriate instructions): http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 06#p235306

[Gale Andrews]

Where do I go to beg for this feature in the next release?!

I can count your "vote" unless you say Steve's textual Jellyfish meets your needs.

Gale

[steve]

A useful thing would be for Audacity to have a [-1...0...+1] kind of display always in the meter group.

I'm not sure that I would want it "always" in the meter group, but I'd like to vote for a simple "stereo phase meter" (like the red/green meter below the "JF Bridge").

[Gale Andrews]

Where do I go to beg for this feature in the next release?!

I can count your "vote" unless you say Steve's textual Jellyfish meets your needs.

Gale

Done.

Gale